Aftermath
by BaOgden
Summary: After Gwen shooting Grey, and Tosh being unconscious after also being shot, the atmosphere in the Hub is tense. However there are other things to worry about. This story follows my ending of series 2. I do not own Torchwood. I hope you enjoy and please give me feedback!
1. Chapter 1

'So, how is she?' Ianto asked Owen who was stitching Tosh's gun wound up, his expression filled with concentration. It had been 3 hours since the incident involving Gwen shooting Grey and everyone was just starting to settle down, yet still nervous about Toshiko. Jack was in his office, no one had dared disturb him. Grey's body was in the morgue. No one had any idea what Jack was planning to do with it. Gwen was pacing up and down the Hub above where Ianto and Owen stood in the autopsy bay, with Tosh lying unconscious on the bed.

'She'll be fine.. I just need to keep her sedated for a little while longer' Owen replied, his voice low.

'Gwen really seems on edge, doesn't she?' Ianto said quietly to Owen. Owen nodded without looking up.

'What can you expect? She did shoot Jack's brother' Owen said, removing his gloves. He had finished working on Tosh and now all they could do was wait.

'I'm going to see Rhys' Gwen finally said loudly. I can't wait here all day for Jack to come out of there. I need to see him.. tell him what's happened and check that he's okay. I need to _see _him'. Gwen had spoken to Rhys on the phone two hours ago to update him on what had been going on, and he had returned home to reflect on what had happened this evening. Rhys wasn't used to all of this Torchwood stuff yet, and having had such responsibility tonight, he was all over the place. John was sat just outside Jack's office, twiddling his fingers. Much to Ianto's amusement, Jack hadn't let him in either.

Just then the doors of Jack's office opened, and the clicking of his boots echoed through the Hub, making Gwen jump. There was a long silence, which Jack broke by asking 'how is she?'

'She's fine, just out of it while the medication does its job.' Owen replied.

Jack nodded once, then turned to Gwen. 'Look Jack, i'm sorry. Ianto-' Jack put his hand up.

'It's fine. I know. I'm not blaming you, Gwen'.

Gwen did a half smile, but her eyes didn't light up. 'I'm gonna go back to Rhys.. I'll see you all tomorrow.' Gwen walked out without looking anyone in the eye. The doors shut behind her and silence followed again.

'What are you going to do with the body?' John asked sympathetically, walking into the room. Owen and Ianto watched him, then looked at Jack, waiting for a response.

'I don't know.. I was thinking about burying it' Jack finally replied.

Everyone looked slightly startled. 'That's a little.. ordinary, isn't it?' Owen asked, frowning slightly in thought.

'It wouldn't feel right.. leaving him frozen in here.. or anything else. He'll be at peace, that way.'

'That's a great idea' Ianto said to Jack, smiling. Ianto wasn't used to Jack being in this much pain, and he didn't really know what to do.

'I agree' John piped up. Owen looked round at him.

'Hang on.. what's he still doing here anyway? Didn't you try to kill us all a few hours ago?' Owen said to John.

John looked slightly panicked. 'Grey was making me do it, or he'd have killed me. I had a bomb strapped to my wrist..' he started.

'Isn't it about time you were leaving now?' Jack asked rhetorically, not looking at John as he spoke.

'Oh yeah.. right', John looked sad, and walked towards Jack. 'So, this is goodbye, then'.

Jack looked up at him with a black expression on his face. 'Yeah. See ya'.'

John's look of hopefulness lasted for a second and when he realised that was all, his face dropped and walked slowly towards the door. _No goodbye kiss or _nothin', he thought. Just before he left, he turned around at them all. 'I'm, er.. sorry for almost killing you all', he added.

'Sure, see you again. We can have some fun like this again, sometime soon hopefully', Owen smiled fakely, then his face dropped. John left then, without another word.

'What a nice bloke' Owen added when he'd left.

Jack looked at Owen. 'You can go now, Owen. I'll take care of Tosh overnight. See you tomorrow'.

Owen nodded once, took his Doctor's jacket off and left.


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone appeared at work the next morning. Everything was back to normal again, even though Tosh struggled to move, she was alive, and that was all that counted.

'How are you feeling today, Tosh?' Owen asked chirpily. Tosh smiled at him.

'I feel good. Could you help me sit up?' she asked, trying to do it partly herself. Owen carefully placed her in the sitting position.

'Careful. It's unusual for someone who was shot in the stomach to be able to sit up, you know, Tosh' Owen told her. She just smiled.

'Yeah, well. I have to move to do my job' she replied.

Then Gwen walked in smiling. 'Tosh! How are you?' she beamed, walking towards her and Owen but leaning on the banister of the stairs which overlooks the autopsy bay, where Tosh had spent the past 30 or so hours being operated on and recovering on. 'I'm good thanks, Gwen. I can sit up, so, before long I'll be doing my job normally again, fit as a fiddle.'

Ianto and Jack walked out of his office, giggling. They had obviously spent the night together. Owen and Tosh raised their eyebrows, and Gwen smiled at them both. 'So, get this. A girl was walking home last night and says she got attacked by this "huge creepy looking thing with wings". She says it bit her and the wound it oozing purple goo.. any ideas?' Jack told them all.

'Well, it could have been a disturbing looking bird.. Or maybe it was just an owl or something… you know how girls can overreact' Ianto stated, looking at Jack, smirking.

'Not that many owl bites contain purple goo. Although I have been on this one planet, the guys there..'

'Woah! Okay' Owen said loudly, cutting Jack off abruptly before he could finish whatever sentence that was going to be. Gwen and Tosh were smirking behind him. 'How about we bring this girl here, do some tests.. see if we can find anything from that.'

'Good idea' Jack said loudly. 'Ianto, Owen, you come with me. Gwen, you stay here and look after Toshiko.'

Gwen's once amused expression changed to anger. 'What?! So while you're all out there searching for this girl who may have been bitten by an alien, I have to stay here and babysit? No offence, Tosh.'

'Told you girls overreact' Ianto said quietly to Owen, who's side of his mouth turned up in silent amusement.

'Well, someone has to stay with Toshiko, she can barely move' Jack told Gwen.

'Can you stop talking about me like I'm not here?' Tosh piped up, annoyed. 'I can take care of myself, you know.'

Ianto stepped forward. 'I'll stay here with her. Besides, someone needs to make tea for when you get back' he smiled.

'Right, okay, Owen, Gwen, let's go' Jack said. Owen and Gwen headed through the door and Jack delayed his exit slightly to give Ianto a quick spank before he left. 'Oi!' Ianto said loudly, smirking as he walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

'So, Jack, where does this girl live?' Gwen asked Jack as they walked towards the car.

'You'll see. Not too far' he replied.

'I'll sit in the back then, shall I?' Owen said more to himself than anyone else, as no one was listening to him.

When they reached their destination, they all got out of the car and walked to the door, Jack knocked. A pretty girl, blonde, who was about 24 opened the door. 'Hey, Melanie. We're Torchwood, we're here about your bite' Jack told her. The girl nodded. 'You're going to have to come with us', he added.

'Where are we going?' the girl asked. She had a northern accent and didn't sound too smart, either.

'Just back to our headquarters to run a few tests on your bite' Jack replied.

'Nothing to worry about' Gwen told Melanie, smiling.

Owen looked at the girl's arm. 'Can I have a look, Melanie? Just to have an idea of what we're dealing with here, first', he asked her politely.

'Sure' she replied, rolling her sleeve up. It was on her forearm, and had four puncture wounds and as told, purple goo oozing slightly from it. Gwen and Owen looked at it and frowned. 'Right, come with us' Gwen said.

The journey home consisted of Gwen asking questions of what Melanie was doing last night, where she was and whereabouts it happened.

'I was just leaving the pub with my friend, Zoe. I said bye to her, and started walking home. I walked through the park, just a few roads away from my house, and I heard this.. noise.. It was like a screech. I didn't see what it looked like. Then, before I knew it, this thing had me on the floor. It came from the sky and it just bit me and then flew away.. and I was left with this' she raised her arm indicating the bite.

_A day doesn't go by where we're not having to deal with weird some alien crap_, Gwen thought. Then Gwen looked up and noticed that Owen was looking at her. 'What?' she asked him. He looked embarrassed as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't, but then pretended he didn't know what she was talking about. 'What?' he mimicked. Gwen looked suspicious.

'You were staring at me..' she accused him.

'No I wasn't' Owen replied. Jack turned round to them both.

'That's enough, you guys. We've got other things to deal with right now.' They arrived back at the Hub, and Melanie looked overwhelmed, especially at the pterodactyl. Gwen giggled silently. Jack sat Melanie in a chair in the autopsy bay, which Tosh -who was pleased about this- had moved, and was sat in a wheelchair at her computers looking happy. Owen started running some tests, took some of her blood, attached some wires to her, took a sample of the goo. This was going on for at least half an hour and at that point, Gwen was sat on the stairs, watching. Jack had gone out to talk to Ianto while he made tea, and Tosh was on her computers looking for any indication of what creature had bitten Melanie.

'Any idea yet?' Gwen asked Owen, sounding bored.

'Er, no. Not yet' Owen replied, fiddling with equipment.

Gwen began chatting with Melanie, and Owen walked up the stairs to see if Tosh had found any more information on their beast.

'So, Owen...' Tosh started, going off-topic. You haven't started flirting with Melanie, yet. This is new', she teased him. 'She is a girl, isn't she?'

Owen looked as if she had pointed out that he was wearing woman's clothes. 'Oh..er, nah. Not my type' he replied.

Tosh looked surprised, but then carried on typing in things on the computer, searching for any more information.

Jack and Ianto then entered the room, Jack carrying a cup of tea, and Ianto carrying two. 'Owen, Gwen' Ianto said, holding them out.

'Cheers, tea boy' Owen replied, taking the tea from Ianto.

'Thanks', Gwen said to him, giving him an appreciative smile.

'I've found something!' Tosh shouted. Everyone crowded round Toshiko. 'It says that this creature bites it's pray leaving behind purple goo. Once the goo goes into the bloodstream, it sets off this smell that only the creature can detect, and comes back for its pray later, to eat it.' Tosh looked around at everybody.

'Yeah, why make things simple and eat the pray there and then, why not save it for a few days..' Owen said loudly.

'This is a good thing. It means as long as the creature doesn't find Melanie, she is safe. She's not dying or anything, or poisoned' Tosh said brightly.

'Yeah, except that the creature can smell her and will come looking for her at any time to eat her' Gwen said, concerned.

Tosh went into research mode again, and went silent, typing away on the computer.

'We just need to figure out some way to hide the smell' Jack said, thinking.

'It would be easier if we could actually smell the scent ourselves, so we'd know how close we were to the smell fading' Ianto said. Jack nodded, thinking, his eyes glassy.

'I think our best bet is to just wait for the beast to attack and kill it before it has the chance to kill Melanie', Gwen said after a while of silence.

After a few seconds everyone realised that Melanie was sat there listening to every word they had just said, and she was staring into space, shaking and looking very pale. 'Shit', Gwen said quietly. 'Melanie, darling..' Gwen went over and started trying to calm Melanie down.

'Thank God for retcon' Jack muttered to Owen and Ianto.

Three hours had gone by and the group were trying to figure out a way to deal with their plan which entailed them looking after Melanie until the beast came looking for her, and then killing the beast before it killed her. Pretty simple. Or so it sounded.

'So, how do we kill this thing?' Owen asked.

Tosh was researching everything about the creature. 'Pretty simple really, just cut its head off.'

'Unless it's huge.. it won't be easy if the thing is huge' Ianto added.

'State the obvious..' Owen uttered. Gwen was sat by Melanie, who had fallen asleep. Ianto had slipped her a little something in her tea, as that had seemed the easiest thing to do. 'I wish she wouldn't snore..' Ianto said, looking over at her with a disgusted look on his face.

Jack looked taken aback. '..I snore..' he said quietly. Ianto looked guilty, but then smiled almost in sync with Jack, who winked at him. No one else caught that.

'Right, so, we cut its head off. With what? A sword?' Owen asked.

'Seems legit' said Gwen. Owen smiled without looking at her.

'How long do we have to wait, Tosh?' Jack asked her, placing his hand on her shoulder. She got goosebumps. That's what happened when Jack touched you.. or looked at you.. or anything really.

'Uhh.. it could be between 8 hours to 48 hours. We really have no idea.' she replied.

Everyone looked slightly fed up. 'Okay, I have an idea' Jack said, then turning to Melanie. Everyone was waiting for Jack to announce his plan.

'What is it?' Ianto finally asked.

'We use Melanie as bait.'

Jack took them to an open field in the valleys, which was away from unwanted attention. 'We don't want to waste any unnecessary retcon,' he'd said to them on the way there.

As Ianto was feeding Melanie another sleeping pill, because according to Jack 'it would be easier if she was asleep', Gwen and Owen were sat down, waiting for Jack's "amazing plan" to work. 'So, what are you up to this evening?' Owen asked Gwen.

'Nothing really, watching TV with Rhys, having a drink. That's if we get to leave at a decent time. We don't know how long this'll take, yet', Gwen replied. Owen laughed, 'good point', he agreed.

'How about you?' Gwen asked him. Owen looked slightly pained.

'You know, the usual. Not eating, not drinking, not doing anything really, just sitting' he replied. Gwen regretted asking, and felt his pain.

'Maybe some night soon you and I could go out for a drink, you know, I wouldn't be drinking, but I could watch you', he smiled slightly, and looked up, his head slightly to one side.

'Yeah, that sounds nice. I'll let Rhys know that I'll be back late.' Gwen replied.

Owen looked slightly pained again. 'Oh yeah, how is old Rhys nowadays?' he asked her.

'He's fine' Gwen smiled. 'Still a bit freaked out because of the weevils, though', she laughed. Owen smiled slightly back, although he looked like he was in deep thought.

Jack turned round to all of them. 'Right! Okay. The more distant we are from other humans, the more distinct the smell is for the beast. He should come sooner, and we need to be prepared.'

'How do you know it's a boy?' Ianto suddenly asked.

'What?' Jack looked confused.

'You said "he", "_he_ should come sooner"'.

'Alright, fine. _It_.'

Ianto seemed pleased with that. Jack raised his eyebrows, as if to ask _are you finished?_ Ianto nodded and Jack continued.

'As I was saying, our best bet is for you guys to shoot, and I'll go for the head', he shouted as he raised the sword. The sound of the wind was in everyone's ears. 'Me and Ianto have spread some goo out around us on the grass, so that it attracts the beast's attention even more, got it?' Jack asked. Owen and Gwen nodded.

It felt like hours had gone by, but not long after they had set everything up, there was a loud screech from behind a hill. Jack stepped away from Melanie, beckoning Ianto by his side. Owen and Gwen stood up, with their guns out and clicked the safety off. The creature came into view, flying not too far from the ground, searching for its long awaited meal. They all waited for the beast to get closer. Gwen's heart was pumping, as she was preparing to shoot the creature at the right moment.

'I can hear your heart beating' Owen whispered to Gwen and they were preparing to shoot.

'I can't hear yours.. Oh my God, are you dead?' Gwen whispered back, obviously joking. Owen smiled slightly, and raised his gun, as did Gwen. The beast was inches from Melanie now, and Jack nodded at them. Both Gwen and Owen shot 4 bullets each at the beast, and it let out a loud cry. But this didn't stop it from trying it's hardest to eat its prey. It was on its feet now, walking towards Melanie. It looked like some sort of dinosaur/bird crossbreed with a huge purple tongue.

'That is _not _sexy', Gwen muttered.

'What have you got against large tongues?' Owen asked.

'I don't mind large tongues, but _purple_..'

They were both muttering and watching the beast intently as they spoke.

It was just leaning over Melanie's unconscious body - which was still snoring - and that was when Jack ran at the beast with his sword in the air, screaming a war cry, dramatically. It was really anti-climactic, though. Jack chopped its head of, no fuss or anything. It was done.

'Well that was boring. There was no fight scene or anything' Owen said as they walked towards the decapitated creature.

'I feel like we should go out and find some random alien and capture it, just to make up for all the trouble we've gone to' Ianto said.

They stood there for a moment, staring at the huge body of the creature. 'So, er... what the hell are we going to do with it?' Owen asked, looking disgusted as he stared at the creatures face.

Back at the Hub, Melanie was being retconned and Jack and Ianto were going to take her back home. In the meantime they were figuring out how to explain to her parents, who would answer the door, why two random men were dropping off their unconscious daughter. Ianto came up with 'she passed out in the park after heavily drinking' and Jack agreed that it was a very plausible idea.

Meanwhile, Gwen was doing her jacket up ready to leave. Owen caught up with her just as she reached the doorway. 'So, Gwen, about that drink?'

Owen left that evening pleased as he had made plans with Gwen to have drinks (or her have a drink or two, as dead people couldn't) next Thursday. Tosh left with Ianto when he returned with Jack after dropping Melanie home, and pushed Tosh's wheelchair back to her's, and then returned to the Hub to see Jack after checking on his apartment, as he hadn't been there in a few days.


End file.
